Removal of contaminants or debris from a flowing liquid stream by the employment of a filter media comprised of particulated filter material is old in the art, as evidenced by the patents listed herebelow. These prior U. S. patents teach the advantages of using various different sizes of various different particulated filter material. Many of the described filter systems require that the filter media be removed from the filter vessel each time it becomes necessary to scrub the contaminant from the media, thereby enabling the media to be used many times. These prior art systems require a considerable amount of additional space, and complicated plumbing must be connected between the various pumps, valves, and other mechanical members in order to interconnect the scrubbing vessel and filtering vessel so that various different predetermined flow patterns are attained. A substantial amount of equipment is required in order to return the filter media to the filter vessel. In addition to the added cost and the required additional space considerations, all of the external plumbing presents a continued maintenance problem; and, the numerous additional mechanical connections involved therein greatly increase the likelihood of leakage occurring from the different components of the filter system.
Furthermore, when transferring the filter media from the filter vessel into the scrubber vessel, one is never absolutely certain that all of the filter media has been properly translocated from one to the other vessel. Hence, in the absence of visual or other exacting determinations, one is never sure exactly what has been scrubbed in the scrubber vessel. Moreover, after the filter media has been scrubbed in the scrubbing vessel, it is never certain that all of the filter media has been returned to the filter vessel, in the absence of exact determination thereof. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have made available a filter system wherein the filter media remains within the filter vessel for the entire life of the media, and wherein the filter media is scrubbed or rejuvenated without removing the filter media to a second vessel. A filter system which achieves these and other desirable and novel attributes is the subject of the present invention.
______________________________________ THE PRIOR ART ______________________________________ Hirs 25,761 Martin 2,136,660 Hirs 3,557,955 Stuart, Sr. 3,557,961 Hirs 3,737,039 Toth 3,757,954 Hirs 3,780,861 Maroney 3,812,969 ______________________________________